Electronic Structure

Waves, we leaned about waves. And no, not the really cool ocean waves, but the waves of subatomic particles (electrons). So apparently electrons like to move in a wave like nature, where they oscillate back and forth. I don't think anyone knows why they do this, but rather accept it was reality. There is also many things that are to be known about these waves:

Using math, it becomes possible to find the values of some of these variables (wavelengh and amplitude) by using he equation:

Honesty, your probably confused right now, and I don't blame you, so here and here are a couple of links that will explain whats going on better. 

Fun with Fire

New unit, new labs. This was by far one of the most exciting labs of the year. We started my starting a bunson burner, and putting sticks with tips soak with different chemicals in the flame. The cool part was seeing the flame turn cool colors, like green, blue, and a pinkish red.

Whats really cool is how the same principles we learned about in class is used in fireworks, and thats how different colors are made when the fireworks explode. 

Final Thoughts on Acids and Bases

This unit managed to be difficult and simple at the same time. For the most part it made sense and I had no trouble answering any questions thrown at me, but for some of the finer points, it could become increasing difficult. The ICE Box wasn't hard for the most part, but at when the question were mixed around it could be. Overall this unit wasn't extremely difficult and had helped me understand the last unit, solutions, better.

Post Test Thoughts

Overall, I thought this test was much easier than the last one we took, mainly because the last one was horrific. I get threw about 3/4 of the test without a problem, but then got stuck on a few question. I did have to spend time after class on the test, because I took a while on the last few problems. Despite this, I think I'm going to get a good score on it and feel pretty confident about it.

Ice Box

Ice Box is a method for finding the pH of weak acids. Rather than try to explain it, to the right is a picture of one.

The values found on the bottom can be put into an equilibrium expression to solve for x. The x can then be solved to find the pH, or sometimes the Kc value.

Here is some more information on Ice Box and how it's done here is a video that goes over Ice Box in detail (calls it RICE but it gets the point across.

Titrations

 The last two labs we've had have been over titrating an acid with sodium nitrate, to find exactly how much acid is in the solution. Titration works by taking a an acid with an indicator (another solution) and putting a base into it. The base will react with the acid until there is no more acid to react to it, where the base will combine with the indicator, making a color change. The first lab we found how much acetic acid was in vinegar, then the second one was over an unknown acid. In both labs we found a standard (titrating KHP with NaOH3) and use the resulting numbers to find the molarity of the NaOH3, then use that number to calculate the amount of acid.

Video for Example